Sheet handling equipment has heretofore involved the collating or sorting of sheets in sorting machines in separated sets or the collection of sets of sheets for finishing and depositing in a stacker in a stack of finished sets.
In some cases, the devices for receiving and collating the sets of sheets have included finishing or stapling devices in which sets of sheets are received in a receiver tray, finished or stapled while in the receiver tray and then deposited in a collector or stacker. In other cases the sets of sheets are individually collected in a sorting machine having plural trays, in which case the stapler may be moved to the respective trays for finishing the sets or the sets may be displaced from the sorter trays and moved to a stapler.
However, in the case of such prior devices, the finishing or stapling operation is accomplished following the completion of the successive sets of sheets in a subsequent finishing or stapling operation, so that rate of speed at which all of the collective functions, including the collection of sets, the finishing or stapling of sets and the deposition of the finished sets in a stacker or the return of a finished set to a sorter tray are all performed in sequence. This results in loss of time for the performance of the several independent functions.